Believing Jesus Bible Study Guide plus Streaming Video: A Journey Through the Book of Acts

By Lisa Harper

Journey through the biblical stories of the early Christian movement, and see what kind of wild adventures await those who truly believe Jesus.

Throughout the book of Acts, believing Jesus and what he said is the core value that marked every believer in the first church. Because they believed Jesus, the early Christians were willing to risk everything—their comfort, their homes, even their lives.

In this eight-session video Bible study (streaming included), Lisa Harper launches into the book of Acts to discover how Jesus' command to spread the gospel changed the lives of those who believed and shaped the culture that surrounded the growing church. At the end of this journey together, not only will you have studied this wild, adventurous, risk-taking book of the Bible; but you'll see how God supernaturally orchestrated the events in Scripture to bring about the message of salvation that the early believers preached.

Today, we are faced with the same risks. Will we truly believe the words of Jesus and allow them to transform every part of our lives?

This study guide has everything you need for a full Bible study experience, including:

• The study guide itself—with discussion questions, conversation starters, video notes, and a leader's guide.
• An individual access code to stream all eight video sessions online (you don't need to buy a DVD!).

Sessions and video run times:

1. The Declarations that Define Us (21:30) – The book of Acts, an extension of Luke's gospel
2. Earth, Wind, and Celestial Fire (19:00) – The Holy Spirit's dramatic entrance
3. Checkered Pasts Can Make Incredible Preachers (21:00) – The powerful preaching of Peter and Paul
4. What’s Mine Is Yours (20:00) – Finding freedom in freely giving
5. Loving More People, More (16:00) – A challenge to welcome everyone
6. The Need to Be ReGospeled (19:30) – Even Peter and Paul made mistakes along the way
7. Turning Your World Upside Down (20:00) – A closer look at THIS Jesus: the one we're following
8. Bearing the Chain Because (24:00) – Anything is worth seeing the gospel suddenly click for someone

Watch on any device!

Streaming video access code included. Access code subject to expiration after 12/31/2027. Code may be redeemed only by the recipient of this package. Code may not be transferred or sold separately from this package. Internet connection required. Void where prohibited, taxed, or restricted by law. Additional offer details inside.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release date: Sep 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9780310146124

Lisa Harper

Lisa has been lauded as a compelling communicator, whose writing and speaking emphasize that accruing knowledge about God pales next to a real and intimate relationship with Jesus. Her style combines sound biblical exposition and exegesis with engaging anecdotes and comedic wit. Her vocational resume is comprised of 30+ years of church and para-church ministry leadership, including 6 years as the director of Focus on the Family's national women's ministry where she created the popular "Renewing the Heart" conferences, which were attended by almost 200,000 women, as well as a decade of touring with "Women of Faith," where she spoke to over a million women about the unconditional love of God.

Book preview

How to Use This Guide

GROUP SIZE

The Believing Jesus study is designed to be experienced in a group setting such as a Bible study, Sunday school class, or any small group gathering. After viewing each video together, members will participate in a group discussion. Ideally, discussion groups should be no larger than twelve people. If the total number of participants in your group is much larger, consider breaking into two or more groups.

MATERIALS NEEDED

Participants should each have a copy of the study guide, which includes video notes, small group discussion questions, and daily personal studies to deepen learning between sessions. Participants are also strongly encouraged to have a copy of the Believing Jesus book. Reading the book alongside the curriculum provides even deeper insights that make the journey richer and more meaningful. The videos for each session are available via streaming and can be accessed by following the instructions on the inside front cover, or as a DVD sold separately.

TIMING

The time notations for each section indicate the actual time of video segments and the suggested time for each activity or discussion. Adhering to the suggested times will enable you to complete each session in about one hour. If you have additional time, you may wish to allow more time for discussion and activities, thereby expanding your group’s meeting time to an hour and fifteen minutes or an hour and a half. If you are also having refreshments and a time of sharing prayer requests, figure in another thirty minutes.

FACILITATION

Each group should appoint a facilitator who is responsible for starting the video and keeping track of time during discussions and activities. Facilitators may also read questions aloud and monitor discussions, prompting participants to respond and ensuring that everyone in the group has the opportunity to participate.

BETWEEN-SESSIONS PERSONAL STUDY

You can maximize the impact of the course with additional study between the group sessions. Carving out about two hours total for personal study between meeting times will enable you to complete both the book and between-sessions studies by the end of the course. For each session, you may complete the personal study all in one sitting or spread it out over a few days (for example, working on it a half hour a day on four different days that week). NOTE: If you are unable to finish (or even start!) your between-sessions personal study, still attend the group study video session. We are all busy, and life happens. You are still wanted and welcome at the group even if you don’t have your homework done.

SESSION ONE

The Declarations That Define Us

(L

UKE

24:1 – 53; A

CTS

1:1 – 26)

INTRODUCTION

Fear and disillusionment. Courage and commitment. Intense emotion and unbridled passion. The ultimate risk of life in exchange for undeserved grace and a treasured spot in eternity. An example for billions of people who would follow the same road centuries and millennia later. An all-out quest by a growing number of believers to risk everything to spread Jesus Christ’s message around the world. The Book of Acts. Wow.

F

ROM THE

B

ELIEVING

J

ESUS

VIDEO

Yes, that’s it. That is the book we are about to dig into for the next eight weeks, and it embodies all of those things.

This study is called Believing Jesus, because from Acts 1:1 to 28:31, believing Jesus is the core value that marked every believer in the first church. At the end of this journey together, not only will you have studied an amazing book of the Bible, but you will also see how God supernaturally orchestrated the events in Scripture — from the Old Testament to the New Testament — to bring about the message of salvation that the early believers preached in the book of Acts. You will also see how so much of the gospel that is preached in Acts, and continues to be preached today, has had such a profound impact on our culture.

When you choose to believe Jesus — and act on those beliefs — things begin to shift, lives change, and the world is never the same. The stories you read on every page of the book of Acts begin to become your own. So let’s journey together through the stories of the first church — the first gathering of The Way (as Christianity was called back then) — and see what kind of wild adventures await those who truly believe Jesus.

WELCOME (5 MINUTES)

Welcome to the first session of Believing Jesus: A Journey Through the Book of Acts. If you or any of your fellow group members do not know one another, take a little time to introduce yourselves. Next, to get things started, discuss the following question:

The book of Acts is about choosing risk over comfort. What are some examples of doing that in our everyday lives?

[Your Response Here]

VIDEO TEACHING (21 MINUTES)

Play the video teaching segment for Session 1. As you watch, use the following outline to record any thoughts or concepts that stand out to you.

Notes

The book of Acts is not relaxing — it is a wild, adventurous, and risk-taking kind of book.

[Your Response Here]

Luke, a first-century physician, wrote both the gospel that bears his name and the book of Acts. He is the only known non-Jewish (or Gentile) writer in the Bible.

[Your Response Here]

The gospel of Luke and the book of Acts were originally one book and were meant to be read as two parts of the same story. The gospel of Luke ends with the story of Jesus’ resurrection, which sets up the events that follow in Acts.

[Your Response Here]

Three days after Jesus’ physical death, Mary Magdalene — a devoted follower of Christ whom Jesus had healed completely of demons — went to the tomb and discovered it empty. She talked to a man she at first thought was the gardener but then realized was Christ. She went back to tell the disciples that Jesus was alive, but they thought it was an idle tale.

[Your Response Here]

Luke tells us that Jesus didn’t immediately go back to heaven after his resurrection but hung out on the earth for forty days. During this time, the Gospels record ten separate occurrences of Jesus appearing to the disciples and to more than a hundred people.

[Your Response Here]

In Acts 1, Luke tells us that before Jesus went up (or ascended) into heaven, he made two declarative statements to his followers: (1) they would receive power from the Holy Spirit, and (2) they would be his witnesses. These statements became the foundation of the early church and the scaffolding that frames the rest of the New Testament.

[Your Response Here]

Jesus didn’t qualify these statements. He said that everyone who puts their hope in him would receive the power of the Holy Spirit, and this power would compel them to be his witnesses and impact the world around them.

[Your Response Here]

If we could just rest in the reality that Jesus loves us — that we have been given power from the Holy Spirit and can be his witnesses to this lost and dying world — it will change everything.

[Your Response Here]

SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION (30 MINUTES)

Take some time with your group members to discuss what you just watched and explore these concepts in Scripture.

1. Why is it significant that Luke, the writer of Acts, was a Gentile?

[Your Response Here]

2. What does Luke tell us about Mary Magdalene? Why was she so committed to Jesus?

[Your Response Here]

3. Why didn’t the disciples believe Mary and the other women when they told them that Jesus had risen from the dead?

[Your Response Here]

4. What was Peter’s reaction to the news? What do we learn about him in Luke 24?

[Your Response Here]

5. What kind of kingdom did the disciples expect Jesus to bring? How was that different from what he actually brought?

[Your Response Here]

6. Why are Jesus’ two declarations in Acts 1 — that those who follow him would receive power from the Holy Spirit and be his witnesses — so central to our faith?

[Your Response Here]

7. When you hear receive the power from the Holy Spirit, what does that mean to you? What qualification did Jesus make about those who could receive this power?

[Your Response Here]

8. What would it look like in your life today to be Jesus’ witness to this world?

[Your Response Here]

INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITY (5 MINUTES)

Read or skim through some of the gospel of Luke, the book that shares an author with Acts. What stories of Jesus on earth